County commissioners are pushing County Executive Mark Hackel to start the process of allowing more trash exports to out-of-county landfills but Hackel said he is in no hurry to revise Macomb’s waste disposal rules based on the wishes of private haulers.

The Board of Commissioners has overwhelmingly approved a resolution calling on Hackel to seat the Solid Waste Planning Committee and let that group set new limits on the volume of trash that can be shipped beyond the county borders. Hackel has said repeatedly he has no short-term plans to revive the SWPC, whose members have all seen their terms of service expire.

Increasing exports would benefit Sterling Heights-based Rizzo Environmental Services, but it would take away business from the county’s lone landfill, Pine Tree Acres, located near New Haven and run by garbage disposal giant Waste Management.

In addition, Rizzo representatives have said they could lower costs to customers in the 10 Macomb County communities they serve if the company was given more flexibility.

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Under the voter-approved county charter and state law, Hackel appoints the SWPC members, with confirmation by the 13-member Board of Commissioners. “The purpose of this resolution is to encourage the county executive to re-establish the Solid Waste Planning Committee,” said Commissioner Jim Carabelli, the Shelby Township Republican who chairs the board’s infrastructure panel. “To be honest with you, the board is now done with this,” unless and until Hackel moves the process forward.

The executive said the overwhelming factor is the amount of landfill space available for trash disposal, not the wishes of the private sector. State officials have said Pine Tree Acres has enough room to continue operating for decades.

“The reason to seat that body (the SWPC) is if there’s a need for capacity,” Hackel said. Issues related to competition and cost “is not a reason to open up the plan.”

As Hackel stuck to the status quo and declined to reinvigorate the SWPC, Rizzo backed off of a plan to build a competing landfill next to Pine Tree Acres, east of Gratiot and south of 29 Mile Road. But the company reached a deal with local officials and a grassroots environmental group to back Rizzo’s new plan for exports to St. Clair, Genesee, Livingston and Sanilac counties.

Macomb’s current solid waste plan, last updated in 1999, bars shipments of solid waste to those counties.

Rizzo was stopped in its tracks when Hackel said last week that he has no intentions of reopening the plan or allowing an open-borders approach.

“Now that the issue has changed from a second landfill to an interest in exporting trash, that still isn’t sufficient reason to convene the committee,” he said.

But Hackel has clarified his remarks, indicating that if the Board of Commissioners is overwhelmingly in favor of bringing back the SWPC, then “we’re more than likely going to see that day.”

The executive said he is willing to hold talks on the issue with municipal officials and commissioners. For their part, the commissioners softened their resolution by removing language that called for “unlimited export” of solid waste.

Under the state-mandated process of amending a county’s solid waste plan, the revisions face approval from the SWPC, the Board of Commissioners, two-thirds of the county’s cities and townships, and the state Department of Environmental Quality. The process can take up to two years.